ROME — Pope Francis on Tuesday issued a rare apology after he was accused of using a highly pejorative slur to refer to gay men in a closed-door session with bishops last week.
The pope’s choice of words, reported by major Italian news outlets and confirmed to The Washington Post by a senior Vatican official, appeared to run counter to his efforts to thaw the relationship between the Catholic church and the LGBTQ+ community. Since he first declared “who am I to judge” shortly after becoming pope in 2013, Francis has gone further than any pontiff in building bridges to gay Catholics.